May012012

April292012

A map of part of the northern hemisphere of Venus, based mainly on radar data from the Russian Venera 15 and 16 orbiters as well as data from the Pioneer Venus orbiter and Earth-based radar telescopes. Colours correspond to surface features, including volcanoes (light red and pink), mountains and ridges (purple, green and blue) and plains (yellow and light green).Picture: SPL / Barcroft Media

Map of the moon based on photographs collected from terrestrial telescopes. The large green crater is Bullialdus crater (61 kilometres in diameter) and the crater at lower right corner is Pitatus crater (97 kilometres in diameter). The light purple zone between them is the Mare Nubium.Picture: SPL / Barcroft Media

Geologic map of the moon. Regions are coloured according to reflectivity and correspond to surface features, such as major impact craters, basins, plains, faults and mountains. It shows how the far side of the moon (upper half) is much more heavily cratered than the near side, where the smoother basin floors of the Mare Imbrium and Mare Frigoris (both coloured red) dominate.Picture: SPL / Barcroft Media